Macquarie Asset Management has continued to expand its presence in the logistics real estate sector by acquiring a portfolio of CityFlex properties in Poland from 7R for more than €63 million on behalf of one of its managed accounts. 

MLP Group has released its strategic goals to be met within the next three years to 2024. In line with the strategic plan, the period will see the company’s equity, or net asset value (NAV), double from €387 million in 2021 to €823 million at year end 2024. Significant growth in NAV is expected in 2022, driven mainly by the development of new projects in Germany and Austria, already fully secured.

HIH Invest Real Estate has just sold two HGV service stations in Poland on behalf of an investment fund owned by a German pension scheme and by a foundation. The assets were purchased by Investika, a Czech investment company formed in 2015. The closing of the transaction is scheduled for January 2022.

VGP, a European provider of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate, published a trading update for the first ten months of 2021.

Developer activity in the Polish warehouse market at the end of September 2021 remains at a high level. Completions in Q3 2021 660,000 sqm increased the total logistics and industrial stock to 22.4 million sqm. There are 3.46 million sqm under construction, of which over 1.22 million sqm (+120% y/y) are developments without secured leases. In the period under review, gross take-up amounted to 1.44 million sqm (+16% y/y), where, as expected, the e-commerce and logistics segments remained the main force. The correlation of strong demand and moderate new supply affects the vacancy rate, which stood at 5.04% at the end of September 2021 (-2.66 pp y/y). AXI IMMO presents the results of the latest report, "Polish warehouse market in Q3 2021".

A 21,000 sqm logistics park is being built in Biatorbágy, near Budapest, along the M1 highway. The LogiCube Park, developed by Defactoring Zrt., will offer sustainable warehouses along with office space, primarily for small and medium-sized enterprises. The first phase of the project, which represents an investment of HUF 1 billion, will start in November this year and is expected to be handed over in the last quarter of 2022.

CTP reported a 92% rise in profit for the first nine months of 2021 to €317.8 million, compared with €165.8 million for the same period of 2020. The company’s strong performance was driven by solid ongoing leasing take up, rental growth and record development valuations from accelerating yield compression in CTP’s core CEE portfolio. The robust financial results are manifested in adjusted EPRA earnings per share year-to-date increasing to €0.38 in 2021 as compared with €0.29 for the same period in 2020. The company has also invested significantly this year in boosting its talent base, attracting new people into senior management roles in country teams and across group functions.

Panattoni has revitalised another brownfield site for investment group Accolade. They have returned industry to a location where it has historically thrived, the former Kavalier glassworks site in Hostomice, in the Teplice region. The first tenant of the new industrial zone named Panattoni Park Teplice South is the Czech sanitary equipment retailer Sanitino. It has started operating a distribution centre, which will gradually serve the whole of Europe. The transformation of a brownfield, with more than a century of glass history, into a modern zone for light manufacturing and distribution of goods, with an investment of more than half a billion, is therefore continuing successfully.

The rising prices of construction materials and energy, the increasing cost of land for new construction, a lack of crucial components to ensure continuous production and workforce shortages are all afflicting the industrial sector in the Czech Republic. One solution in regard to the availability of industrial real estate would seem to be the optimising of operations and more frequent investment by many companies into the automation of routine activities.

European Logistics Investment (ELI) has commenced constructing a logistics centre in Błonie near Warsaw. The Park Warsaw West X project by ELI and its partner Panattoni is planned as a multi-let facility offering nearly 49,000 sqm of modern warehouse space. The investment is planned to be delivered in Q2 2022.